VCSEL-based radiation tolerant optical data links

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will become operational in 2005 at The European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). The LHC will be the highest energy proton-proton collider in the world. One of the electronic particle detectors which will operate at the LHC is called ATLAS. The environment for electronics placed within ATLAS is extremely hostile due to the high levels of radiation and the general lack of access to components during the expected 10 year lifetime of the experiment. It is planned to use custom radiation tolerant VCSEL- based optical links to transfer data from the ATLAS inner detector to remote data acquisition electronics. A low mass, non-magnetic and radiation tolerant VCSEL packaging has been developed for the most hostile region in the center of ATLAS where the inner detector is located. The performance of the package is reported on. Qualification tests of commercial VCSELs are also described. The VCSELs were irradiated with neutrons (up to 8.10/sup 14/ n(1 MeV)/cm/sup 2/) and annealing studies carried out. Post-irradiation accelerated lifetime tests equivalent to a minimum of 3700 LHC operation years at a 0 degrees C operation temperature are reported on. The characteristics of VCSELs when operated in a strong magnetic field (up to 6 T) are also studied. (13 refs).